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Grace mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord

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and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen. Today

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I'm going to talk about an irony that I see in the reading from

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Isaiah.

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The irony comes in that interchange between the end of chapter 52 and

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the first verse of chapter 53.

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At the end of chapter 52, Isaiah is talking about the Nations and

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their kings.

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He says just as many are appalled at him.

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That is the servant so he will startle many nations. At him

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the mouths of Kings will be silenced. In other words

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they're going to be dumbfounded.

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Isaiah then explains why. Because what was not told to them they will

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see and what they did not hear they will perceive.

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Kings and their nations are going to be astonished by a sudden turn in the fortunes of

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this servant. A turn that ends there reign an unexpected fall.

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And they are without a clue.

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Know did anything like that even close to that ever happen

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in the Old Testament in the history of God's people when their enemies

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were arrayed against them?

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Of course, it did. For example at the Red Sea or when the angel of the

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Lord slew the Assyrian army when they are camped around the Gates of

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Jerusalem.

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The sudden defeat of Israel's enemies and the sudden deliverance of

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Israel function as shadows or hints of things to come. One such event

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of course is already happened in our own history, but this event to is

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only a first fruits.

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The full harvest is yet to come.

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Jesus says that it will happen one more time at the end of human

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history and at that time every King and all the nations will see it

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with a shocked realization.

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Isaiah's words will prove to be true once again.

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Now the irony comes when we move to the first verse of chapter 53. Here, Isaiah

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turns from the King to Israel and he gives them two questions.

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Question number one. Who has believed our report?

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Question number 2. And the arm of the Lord to whom has yet been

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revealed?

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Now the irony becomes clearer if you mentally reverse the two

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questions and put them in what I want to claim is a more logical order.

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Writers

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sometimes reverse logical order.

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They put the cart before the horse

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so to speak in order to highlight the most important idea. The Greeks

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even have a fancy name for this kind of poetic move, which I won't

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bore you with this morning. But try reading the questions this way

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first.

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To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed and then but who has

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believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed what

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the answer of course is Israel. As I just said in Israel's history God

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bared his arm and rescued disfigured humiliated Israel from their

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enemies again, and again. Israel's stories and songs and sermons are full

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of praise for the mighty acts of Yahweh the Redeemer.

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But who has believed our report?

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You can almost hear Isaiah's exasperation.

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The answer

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not many.

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Here's the irony Nations aren't told Kings.

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don't get to see they get blindsided. Israel.

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Israel gets to see. Israel gets to hear. Israel never lacked the prophet to

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bring God's word to them

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and yet

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they are stiff-necked and slow to believe.

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No wonder Isaiah leads with his rhetorical question.

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He can't hold back his frustration.

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Now when it comes to the unbelief of those who get to see and get to hear

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Jesus himself shows us that nothing really changes.

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The Apostle John tells us about a time when Jesus was teaching the

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people.

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And he urged them to faith..

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Why you have the light believe in the light, but you might become

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children of the light he told them but then the Apostle John adds some

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commentary.

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When Jesus had said these things he writes he departed and hid himself

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from them though

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he had done so many signs among them.

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They still did not believe in him.

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So that so that the word of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled Lord

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who has believed what we have heard to whom has the arm of the Lord

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been revealed.

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The Apostle does not stop there.

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He continues.

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Therefore they could not believe for again Isaiah said he has blinded

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their eyes and hardened less

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they see with their eyes and understand what their heart and turn and

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I would heal them.

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John interprets our text in light of that famous and daunting passage

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from Isaiah 6 just like Yahweh so it is with Jesus.

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Jesus showed them mighty signs and still the people didn't believe.

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And just like Israel God made it so that they could not believe he

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shut the eyes and heart of his own people.

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Tragic irony.

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Now one thing that this suggests to me is that if you do happen to

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believe it can only be because God has opened your heart.

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I believe that I cannot buy my own reason or strength believe in Jesus

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Christ my Lord or come to him.

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We all know this.

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Do you know what?

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I sometimes worry that we treat this truth

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as nothing but a platitude. I worry because I asked myself if we

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really understood the value of God's blessings should not the

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difference between those who have been blessed

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so richly shouldn't with this rare gift really and those who have not

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sort of shine like the sun.

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Is this not a blessing of the highest value by which everything else

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in our life should be ordered would you not think. But here I'm faced

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with a sad truth if I do indeed have faith

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I often hold

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it as very cheap blessing.

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There's a sort of epilogue to that passage from John that I just read

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a few moments ago.

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I cannot escape seeing myself in it, but I actually don't know whether

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I'm comforted by it or damned by it.

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As I said before Jesus quotes, Isaiah 6 to explain the unbelief of

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God's people as God's judgment.

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But then John adds this little observation.

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Nevertheless many even of the authorities believed in him.

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Has God blessed them heopen their hearts.

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But then John continues.

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But for fear of the Pharisees

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he says they were not continuing to confess him so that they would

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not be put out of the synagogue for they loved the glory that comes

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from man more than the glory that comes from God.

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They love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes

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from God.

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That faith love split that bothers me because it exposes a fault in my own

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heart.

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I know that faith is not just a cognitive acceptance of some

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theological truths.

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I can do that in my sleep.

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It is not just sophisticated theological acumen.

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Of course, we have an abundance of that around here, too.

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Is it not fear of him?

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Love for him, trust in him above all things. What is left of faith paired

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with fickle love?

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Was the faith of those folks genuine or not? Where they saved? Where

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they dammed? You see the ambiguity of the passage of that little text

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leaves me uncertian.

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I am bothered because in my own heart, I love other things more too

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and God cannot be happy with that.

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So maybe I'm just fooling myself here.

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Now, I don't know whether you wrestle with questions like that or not,

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maybe not but if you do.

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What are we to do with the certainty that we love other things more

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than we love Jesus?

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And the uncertainty of what this means for the genuineness of our

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faith.

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Now I know one thing I can do with all these doubts

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and all that unbelief.

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The only thing I can do is what Isaiah actually did report to you what

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I say in the prophets heard about the Lord's servant and remind you

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that the one he was talking about is ultimately the one whom we today

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see hanging from that cross. The appalling sight of a man disfigured in

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his appearance beyond mortal man, Isaiah says. Surely Isaiah says he

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took our sicknesses and carried our pain but we thought that it was

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for his own sins that he was stricken smitten by God and afflicted but

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really he was wounded for our transgressions crushed because of our

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sins chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes there

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is healing for us.

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Now you all know that Isaiah is incredible report continues and it

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invites and deserves your deepest contemplation.

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Take some time to read it when you leave this chapel today, but before

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you go

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wherever your heart is at this moment.

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You need to know and I need to know that this is God's word for you

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and me too. You are part of Isaiah's pronouns our and we and us because

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you have been grafted into Israel.

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When you look at Christ crucified, please note the through him God is

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making all those promises that we read and Isaiah your promises.

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Through the work of this servant God promises you that your sins are

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forgiven.

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He promises that as he raised this servant from the grave and gave him

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a portion among the living and exalted him to reign at his right

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hand over all things.

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So he will do the same for you. Forgive your sins.

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Raise you from the dead. Give you a portion among the living and exalt

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you to reign with him.

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That's what I asked you to hear today your sins are forgiven.

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Including your doubts. At the end of his own wrestling match with the

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power of sin and unbelief

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Paul himself cries Out o wretched man that I am who will deliver me

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from this body of death.

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The answer is close at hand.

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I thank God through Jesus Christ

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my Lord. As God says to the prophet Isaiah.

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The righteous one

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my servant will declare the many righteous.

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That's your promise from a God who is powerful enough and faithful to

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do what he has said.

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Tomorrow evening at your Maundy Thursday service.

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You're going to hear that promise again

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when you take Holy Communion. That line that our Lord is so eager to say

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to you on the last day that he cannot wait and so he says it now.

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A nice cart before the horse truth consider it as a promise from the

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mouths of the servant.

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This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you

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for the forgiveness of your sins.

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Whatever doubts or fears you may have today and whatever anxieties or

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hurt that you harbor. Whatever sin and guilt in which you are mired.

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This is what I offer you today. The report of Isaiah as the report from God

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himself.

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This one has forgiven everything.

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Please pray with me.

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Lord I believe help thou in my unbelief. Amen.